Recently finished this game and overall I thought it was a pretty damn good game, a solid 8/10, but I do have some gripes to go along with the props.
EDIT: My spoiler tags aren't working correctly. SPOILERS Below
It has a very well designed map that while linear, doesn't feel as linear as it actually is. That may sound like a swipe, but it's actually impressive how well they mask the linearity of the game to make you feel like you're doing meaningful exploration. This adds to the factor that the game design always pushes you forward and you won't be getting stuck.The game does a great job of pulling you in and making you want to play for another half hour, before you know it, 3 hours have passed.
The pace of the game for the first 75% or so is fantastic until about halfway through the factory. The area is well pretty designed, but it just drags on and on while having too many enemy encounters. Even after all of the encounters from this area I didn't really have to worry about ammo.
The game looks fantastic. Sure there's some ugly textures here and there but if you play the game like a normal person, not zooming in on books on the shelf with a sniper rifle, you won't notice many of the small visual blemishes. There's some minor lip sync issues here and there but overall the facial animation and just the animation in general is really good. The ray tracing looks excellent and isn't over done/in your face, it just looks right.
I have some minor issues with the sound. I wish there was a bit more music. RE7 was also light on the music. Capcom, bring music back to RE games, please. Most of the voice acting is great. Straddles the line between campy/goofy and serious pretty well. Some of Lady D's lines sound like they were recorded or mixed shittily with what sounds like clipping on some of her lines. Speaking of mixing, it annoys me that most of the enemy noises are mixed in both speakers evenly to try to make it harder to know where they're coming from. It's used in horror movies a lot, but it's just fucking annoying in this game. A lot of the gun sounds are pretty underwhelming, especially the shotguns.
Outside of the creepy ass baby sequence the game never reached the same level of scares as RE7. RE7 is a consistently scary game, even on subsequent playthroughs. I replayed 7 right before starting 8 and the contrast is very noticeable, but not until you're a couple hours into Village.
A lot of that has to do with the abundance of ammo, money, and crafting supplies. I never felt that "I absolutely need to hit this headshot or I might run out of ammo soon" feeling that 7 nailed so well. Having such a big inventory also decreased tension. In the entire game I had to rearrange my case once, and I didn't have to make any decisions about what to keep, just moved things around some. Also pretty much every attempt at a jump scare falls flat, especially compared to 7.
My main gripe with the game is the story. "Ethan being a mold was an underwhelming revelation. When he was able to reattach his arm it basically confirmed what a lot of people had already thought from playing RE7. It was implied in RE7 with his arm being stapled back on or Lucas somehow reattaching his arm off screen. We see the regenerative properties with Mia being infected as well as the entire Baker family (outisde of Zoe I guess)"
The bait and switch with Mia/Miranda would've worked way better if it didn't involve Chris intentionally not telling Ethan, "hey that actually wasn't your wife, she's captured." It's just a stupid device to get a "twist" in.
The way the story unfolds, in general, isn't as good as RE7. Through the entirety of 7 you get meaningful little pieces and clues, whether through dialogue or through documents. In this game most of the documents don't really tell you much in terms of plot until the last 2 hours or so. The story itself also doesn't really get pushed forward at all for the entire middle section of the game.